Outdoor Sort of Weekends...

This has been a beautiful autumn weekend. The weather has been warm with a cool wind and the sun has been shining. It's the kind of weather that makes you feel guilty for staying indoors.

Thus, I tried not to stay indoors. I spent much of the time with the girls outside. I took them for a long walk on Saturday over the park. We haven't been there since the spring- our last visit was after we'd had floods and it was a wet soggy mess. Soon after, the weather got too hot to walk for too long outside and so this was our first trip back for a while.

It was the perfect time for walking. I've found that the woods where we walk (aka, the park) is far less busy on Saturdays than Sundays. I think this is because most people use Saturdays for productivity and Sundays for relaxation.

Thus, we had the woods mostly to ourselves. We did our usual trek. It was a wonderful hike- the leaves were thick enough to crunch under our feet but the ground was dry enough that we didn't slip at all. Autumn was all around us as we walked.

I was a little apprehensive because Rory has become a little, uh, lazy since the spring. As I've mentioned, she has a penchant for sitting down when she's had enough. Still, since the weather has cooled, she hasn't sat down for a while so I was hopeful.

Well, we made it 3/4 of the way through our trek and then she dug her heels in and didn't want to walk anymore. Sookie was fine. After trying to coax her to keep moving, I eventually gave in and ended up carrying her for a little way. This seemed to appease her and shortly after, she began walking again, albeit a little more slowly.

By the time we were done, both dogs and I were all rather tired but happy. It was a windy day and there's nothing more refreshing than a long walk on a breezy autumn day.

As for today, I spent the majority of the day outside. It's coming time to winterize the garden and though many of my flowers are still in bloom, I decided to clean out my shed and clear off the patio. It's a little sad but it's also nice to know that I've accomplished something. I spent the rest of the afternoon weeding and trimming back the overgrown areas. In a couple of weeks, I'll start pulling up the flowers as they die back but for now, it's nice to see that the flowers aren't ready to give up yet.

I love weekends like this where I have no set agenda but have a flexible 'to do' list. I think since it is such a lovely day, I shall try to finish it off outside. The days are already getting shorter so I'll try to catch the sunshine while it's there.

Even though it's back to work tomorrow, I'm still forever grateful that we get two days a week away from the normal drudgery of the work day. I even like my job and I'm still happy to get away for a couple of days. This week, especially, is a big week for me as it's the year anniversary of when I left my old job that made me unhappy and started this one which has been significantly better. Obviously, no job is perfect but I'm pretty pleased with mine.

Still, before the work week starts all over, there's a few more hours of my autumnal weekend to enjoy. The breeze is still blowing and the sun is still shining...I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love Autumn!

Thanks, as always for reading and Happy Monday!

Autumn is in Control...

So, I’ve been back from my trip for three days now, give or take a few hours. I’m still feeling a slight case of jet lag- going to bed isn’t a problem, it’s the waking up at 4 a.m. and not being able to get to sleep that’s a pain. I’m back at work and starting to feel like I’m catching up again. The pups are a little more cuddly than usual- as though they’re afraid I’m going to leave them again. However, for the most part, I’m feeling almost back to normal.

It’s amazing how much things can change when you’re away for ten days. Before I left, Autumn was just starting to creep in and exert her strength over the waning summer. Her paintbrush of colour was just starting to turn the leaves a little but, for the most part, they were all still on the trees.

When I got back, quite a transformation had occurred: A canvas of colour has taken over and the ground is littered with leaves. There are reds, golds, yellows and oranges fighting each other for grandeur in the trees that line my street. The summer flowers, still in bloom when I left, seem to have conceded that they can no longer match the glory of the trees and thus have faded a lot and started to bow their heads in defeat.

I love it. Up and down my street, people have their autumnal decorations out. There are pumpkins, scarecrows, ghosts, graveyards and all sorts of Halloween fun. I did get my own decorations out last night. I don’t do much other than to weave a garland of silk autumn leaves up my little lamppost, put out my autumn flag and line up some small scarecrows.

This time of year is wonderful. We’re still having the warm temperatures of late summer but the crisp, cool nights of Autumn. It’s far too early for Winter to attempt to wrestle control and so things are a warm glow of fall splendor.

I took the girls for a walk last night- our first in a while. They love the leaves on the ground, foraging in the piles to see if they can hunt any living creatures. The most they find is usually a grasshopper. Sookie’s quite partial to grasshoppers and while I know they’re actually quite nutritious, I still prefer to pretend she doesn’t eat them.

It’s nice to walk in the autumn. It’s a little quieter than the summer. The neighbourhood kids still play together but there’s not that manic abandon of summer anymore. The bike riding and trampolining has died down a lot and while they still run up and down, laughing and shouting, it’s not nearly as wild and energized. There are far less people working outside on their gardens. We occasionally passed the odd leaf-blower or raker but mostly, people have started to be indoor folk a little more.

It’s definitely Autumn. There’s no mistake about it anymore. Soon, I’ll get my annual pumpkin(s) and carve them, reserving the seeds for roasting. I’ve already started cooking a little more autumnally: I have an acorn squash to roast as well as a butternut squash with which to make ravioli, hopefully this weekend. I’ll start making more soups and stews before much longer. At the moment, I’m still using the final yield of my tomato crop- plucking the last fresh basil before it turns to seed. Soon, I’ll use more sage and thyme. That’s one of the harder parts of the waning warm weather- no fresh herbs to pick from the garden.

Still, I do enjoy the crunch of the leaves, the vivid colours and the pumpkin-spiced atmosphere of Autumn. Even though there were signs of it over the UK, somewhere between there and here, Autumn really took the reigns of control. It’s a lovely picture to return to and I intend on enjoying every bit of the season.

Happy Wednesday and thanks, as always, for reading!

After the Indian Summer is Gone...

Our Indian summer is over. It was one of those days where, when you get up, it's chilly outside. There's not quite a frost but nature was thinking about it. It's cold enough that you feel like you need a jacket but if you wear one, you're going to feel a little silly by midday when it's warmed up and you're suddenly carrying around a jacket. You still want to put the jacket on because it's still not warm, per se and yet...well, you're not used to it being jacket weather and you don't want to give in, not yet...even though it's time.

It was still a beautiful day out there today. Most of the leaves have fallen and they're swept into tidy heaps. Some ambitious souls are still mowing their lawns. I don't understand this, honestly. I know it's a way of mulching the leaves but the grass is dying back. We didn't have enough rain this summer for the grass to grow much at all during late July/August. Besides that, we've had a hard frost and it's bad for the lawn to cut it.

Still, when I run home at lunch to release the hounds from their crate, there are usually a couple of men mowing their lawns in the warm sun. Perhaps it's their attempt to cling on to the warmer days of the past season. Perhaps they just like mowing their lawn. It's hard to say. Yet there's a chill to the air now that wasn't here last week. It's the type of chill that's letting us know that winter isn't too far away and autumn is saying goodbye to summer, once and for all.

The evenings are cooler again after the tease of the Indian summer. I walked the pups again tonight and as I walked with them, I realized that if you were to take the calendar and flip it horizontally so that we were in spring, not autumn, this was the exact type of evening you'd find. It comes in after a warm day and there's a chill to the air, the same type of chill there was tonight.

The puppies will be disappointed that Indian summer is over. They love their 'leaf dives' in the evenings. Now, with the time change, it's getting dark when we start out and almost dark when we're done. Rory has been able to perform her belly flops into leaf piles under cover of night. It makes it a little less embarrassing if she splats the pile back into an untidy mess of leaves instead of a neatly swept pile. I try to stop her but she's a dachshund on a mission. Sookie, meanwhile, waits for Rory to splat the pile and then she has a nose. One time, they found a vole that one of the neighbourhood cats had clearly hidden in the pile. They thought it was a prize until I made them drop it. They do like their prizes. They haven't caught much in our garden though they had a lovely time hunting voles at my parents. By my count, they caught three. They also caught a rather large cricket and found a recently dead bird. There's no doubt about it: My dogs are hunters.

Yet they also enjoy the sniff of the hunt as much as the thrill of a catch. That's what they do on their walks. You can always tell when they've scented a bunny and they know it's nearby. The leashes go taut and they're both poised, ready to locate the bunny. The nice thing about them being on a leash is...they're on a leash. I can control their hunting expedition.

Of course, I still can't quite control Rory and her tendency to belly flop into leaf piles but it's probably because I just don't try as hard. There's something just too adorable about watching her run, do this strange little leap and suddenly be in the middle of the pile while her sister looks on, as though shaking her head and saying, "Messy little sod!"

Then again, maybe that's me.

Oh well, we may as well enjoy our autumn walks while the weather is letting us still take them. Belly flops and all.

Happy Tuesday!

Indecisive Autumn

We are having a very peculiar Autumn so far. It's usual to have an Indian Summer during the earlier part of the season. It gets cold and then, suddenly, it gets warm for a while. In our case, we're having our Indian Summer all over the place. A few nights ago, it was frosty outside. The days were chilly enough that a jacket was necessary for going out in the morning. Even during the day, it was nice to have an extra layer. When it's like this, it's too cold to sleep with the windows open and the body heat of two little puppies is rather nice to have at night.

Then it gets warm. It's done this a few times now. Yesterday, it was a warm, almost hot day. The night temperature got down to 63 degrees. For us, this is considered rather hot for a night in October. It means you wake up at 2 a.m. sweating because you've put the thicker comforter on the bed and the puppies are still burrowing under it, adding more heat to the situation.

We also haven't had any rain. When I say no rain, I mean literally no rain. We're almost 8 inches short for the year. We were supposed to get some rain today. Alas, no rain. Tomorrow, we're supposed to have heavy rain. I'm hoping this is true.

The thing is, while it's nice to have a variety of temperatures, it makes it a little hard to plan things like Autumn meals. For example, silly me listened to Frank Marzullo and the Fox 19 Storm Tracker Weather and I believed him when he said it was supposed to be cold and rainy on the Sunday of this past weekend. It ended up being almost 80 degrees and partly sunny. I had planned a nice warm Autumn meal- my mother's 'mincemeat' recipe with noodles and lettuce salad. I still made it. It was still tasty. Yet it wasn't the warm, comfort food of a chilly, rainy Autumn night. It was the rather overly heavy meal on a balmy Indian Summer night.

Tonight, we're trying for something a little less comfort food and a little more fun. Gorganzola mashed potatoes, grilled steaks with red wine-braised mushrooms and haricot vert beans with herbs. It sounds fancy but I'm just using up things I have on hand. The nice thing is that now I've mostly learned to cook, I can make a pretty good meal out of a few ingredients. It's all rather fun.

The other thing about this peculiar Autumn is walking the dogs. Some evenings, I need a jacket. Some evenings, I don't. It's hard to tell sometimes. Tonight, there was a slight breeze but not enough to require a jacket. It was enough to scatter the carefully raked piles of leaves that are sitting in heaps by the curb. I don't have enough leaves to do much raking. That's the nice thing about not having my own trees. The puppies would probably like some leaf piles but considering the mess they make with the few leaves we have in the garden, I think I'm ok with them having a nose in the leaf piles we pass as we walk.

Tonight, there were lots of people out raking. Larry the Potential Serial Killer was one. We haven't seen him since he stalked us in his car and I had this horrible feeling I was going to get trapped. Fortunately, Mike (he of the very large backyard and also the recipient of my unwanted pampas grass) saved us by being out for a stroll and stopping to chat to Larry not long before the puppies and I had no choice but to pass by. Thus, Larry was preoccupied and couldn't stop for one of his up-close-and-personal chats without being rude to Mike. He did, however, make an overly enthusiastic suggestion that I join him for a bonfire in his garden sometime soon.

We'll see about that. Given that I call Larry a potential serial killer, it's probably not likely to happen. He does make me a little uncomfortable. Maybe he can invite Mike instead. They both seem quite lonely. They're both unmarried men in their mid-to-late forties. They could have a famous time together!

Still, he's not the only one contemplating leaf fires. Someone had just started one as the pups and I continued our sojourn. While the smell of leaf fires is appealing, this particular one was a little smokier than the normal fire and the smoke was a little much. It was bad enough for us as we passed by. I can't imagine being the one standing over the fire.

Nevertheless, the fire made the air smell Autumnal. It would have been just a little nicer had it been crisper in temperature but it was still nice. I'm hoping it's not the last leaf fire we see/smell this year.

Although I think I'll pass on Larry's.

Happy Tuesday!

De-Leafing Puppies and Adventures in Sponsored Walking

Here we are again on a Sunday evening after another whirlwind weekend. It's a dreary Sunday night. It's been cloudy all day with the vague threat of rain. It actually just started raining but it's that slow type of rain that just dampens the world outside rather than make it wet. The leaves are falling a little quicker as they're weighted down with the dampness.

It means that the wet leaves will be easier to tread inside, especially when puppies are involved. Given that I spent the day cleaning my house from top to bottom, it's Murphy's Law that we get this rain that will allow my pups to bring the outside indoors merely by running around the garden.

Of my two puppies, it's Rory who I affectionately refer to as my "messy little sod." If there's a puddle, Rory will be the one in the middle of it. If there's a pile of leaves, Rory will dive. If there's a place to dig, Rory will be the one with dirt covering her from head to toe. Sookie is one of the perpetually tidy dogs. Even when she digs, the dirt doesn't stick to her. She doesn't get the leaves trapped in her coat the way Rory does and while she doesn't mind getting a little wet, she doesn't stick her head in my parents' fish pond the way Rory does.

Today, we decided to take an autumn walk over at the park we went to before. It briefly was sunny this morning and blue sky peeked through. It was at this time I decided we should take the walk. Naturally, by the time we got to the park, the sun had gone, the blue sky had vanished and the murky threat of rain loomed overhead.

Still, we walked. For a few moments. Then we suddenly saw crowds and crowds of people walking towards us. I'm talking hundreds of people, snaking their way along our trail. It turns out we had decided to take our walk on the same day there was some type of massive, multiple charity sponsored walk.

We bravely kept walking. It wasn't terribly fun. One of the reasons I take the girls to the park is because I'm trying to socialize them slowly with other dogs and other people. Sookie tends to be rather skittish around strangers and barks a lot when she's nervous. Today was a bad day to try to slowly socialize the girls. It was like being thrown in the deep end and hoping not to drown. At first, Sookie panicked. She woofed and ran around, frightened and worried. By the time we were embedded in the crowd, both she and Rory were clearly just trying to keep their heads above water. I'm all for charity and sponsored walks but it was a little frustrating because the trail is divided into two paths, one for people coming one way and one for the people coming the other. We were walking against the crowd but we were frequently bumped off the path of the trail so that we had somewhere to walk because at times there were up to seven people all trying to walk side by side.

Rory and Sookie were very popular. I can't count the amount of people who exclaimed, "Aw, look at the weiner dogs!" or "AWWWWWWWWW!". It was good for the girls' egos except I think they were just trying not to go mad in the throng of the crowds.

We finally got to the place we found last time we walked there. It's an outcropping over the lake that is a detour from the trail. I took the girls there and, thankfully, we were alone. I sat the girls down, made a fuss of them and gave them some treats and water. It seemed to really help calm them down. We waited until the passing crowd had thinned out and we started back up. We were lapped by some of the same people who'd already passed us but it was much easier after that. By the time we got to the girls' favourite area which is another trail bypass, we were back to being alone in our walk. Their favourite area is by another small lake. There's an actual walking path but we prefer to ignore that and, instead, cut through the trees and explore.

The girls were in heaven then. They found piles and piles of leaves in which to dive. There's a dried up stream that's full of rocks. We normally walk around but today, the pups had scented something and were on the hunt. They wanted to ford the dry stream so I let them. It's much easier for a puppy than a human, it seems. I had a bit of trouble on the rocks but we made it through.

Then Rory decided to dive into yet another pile of leaves. Sookie followed. Rory emerged covered head to tail with burrs. They clung to her ears, her tail and her belly. Sookie emerged...burrless. I tried to pick the burrs off Rory but a couple of them were tangled in the long hair of her ears and there was no way to get them off without cutting them out.

Still, by the time we were done, the puppies seemed happy. Their eyes gleamed with the thrill of the hunt and my own cheeks were red from the wind and the effort. It turned out to be a lovely walk in the end even if it was a bit of a nightmare in the beginning.

When I got home, I attended to Rory's burrs. I also untangled the leaves from her fur. Sookie, of course, had no such issues.

Now we're home on a wet Sunday evening. It's a perfect stay-at-home type of night. It's the type of night in which you want to curl up with two puppies, watch some TV and enjoy the fact that it's Fall.

Of course, I'll have to inspect Rory first to make sure she's not carrying any debris before we curl up. Oh, my messy little sod.

I wouldn't swap her for the world.

Happy Monday

What is it About Trees?

It's Friday again. Last week, I blogged about how much I liked Fridays. Then I had a car wreck on Saturday and the promise and freedom of my weekend lost its charm somewhat. So, I don't think I'm going to blog about how much I like Friday's today....just in case.

Instead, I'm just going to blog about nice things because it's the end of the week. For example, yesterday, I actually got to go outside during the day time which doesn't always happen. It was a beautiful day. The sky was that cornflower blue that makes you want to lie down and just stare up at it. There were clouds but they were the white and fluffy wisps that were so high up, it was almost as if they were deciding whether they wanted to stay. It was a quite chilly but it not as cold as it has been. I was outside to meet the insurance man from the company of the lady that hit me. While he was inspecting my car, I looked around and I saw a tree that I've seen every day since I started working here. Yet this time I really noticed it. It was still that light green that you expect to see in the spring, almost a newborn-leaf green. There was a slight yellow tint to the leaves that was the only indication that the tree had recognized the autumn until yesterday. Yet the leaves were falling off, steadily, as if the tree had just realized it was supposed to be dropping its leaves. The leaves fell in shifts. One batch would fall, gently floating to the ground, gracefully landing and as soon as they landed, the next batch would fall. I watched the tree for several minutes and it continued. It was almost like watching a carefully choreographed ballet and it was hard to turn away and give my attention back to the insurance man.

This morning, I made a point to notice the tree and it is now just like all the other trees, the remaining leaves are scarce and now there's a carpet of yellow-edged green beneath it that will, I'm sure, turn brown and melt back into the ground. It was another of those things that make me happy to have moved back to the midwest.

I'm also determined to try to make this a good Halloween. I had planned to go back to stay with my parents this weekend. I love doing that anyway but after my rather stressful weekend, I really wanted to go; sort of a way to soothe my ruffled feathers and relax for a couple of days. Also, it means I can do my laundry or, since I have a wonderful mother, get my laundry done for me (thanks, again, mum...I really do know how to do laundry but you're lovely to do it for me :)). I actually don't mind doing the laundry...it's the folding I hate. Apparently, I'm a horrible folder. I never thought much of it; ok, so it was wrinkled a bit but...isn't that normal? However, having watched several expert t-shirt folders in action, I've realized that...folding isn't my forte. I tend to fold one shirt nicely and then get bored and it becomes an attempt to fold the rest into tiny little packages with no regard for how that happens.

I'm digressing. Anyway, so I'm not going to be able to go to my parents this weekend because I can't get my car fixed until next week and I'm a bit reluctant to drive 100 miles each way, just in case something falls off. The rear bumper is hanging off and there's a lot of hills on the way. I'm a bit worried about going down a hill and leaving my bumper behind. It's probably safer to wait until next week. This means that I won't be able to see my nephews and nieces dress up for Halloween. It also means I have no plans. I always feel like I should do something for Halloween but somehow I never get around to it. Well, actually, that's not entirely true. A couple of years ago, I did win tickets from KROQ and got to go to the Black Parade party in which My Chemical Romance played at a really small venue. That was pretty cool.

But that's pretty much the extent of my Halloween celebrations. I'm not sure what I should do. Maybe I should rent horror films. It's hard to find good ones though. Nowadays, most horror films are just....silly. I like ones in which the horrific situation is actually realistic, the movie begins to creep under your skin slowly, enveloping you so that you feel jumpy when a strange noise in your own house occurs. I don't like those silly teenage movies where they have a lot of sex and then die in some horrific manner. Some of them start out with an interesting idea like "Final Destination". That one was pretty decent, actually. Except...then there were sequels. How final can a Final Destination be when there are sequels? I mean, shouldn't they then rename the earlier films to things like and "Not quite Final but Almost There Destination" and "Finaler Destination?"

I think one of my favourite creepy films is "The Sixth Sense". I know the plot twist now, of course, but I still get a bit of a start when Haley Joel Osment is at his school and turns to see those people just hanging there. Or when he's in his home-made tent and he's suddenly cold and you know something's going to jump out but it still makes your heart jump when it does.

Of course, that's when M. Night Shyamalan should have stopped making movies. I mean, did you see "The Happening?" It has to be one of the most deliciously awful films I saw this year. Mark Wahlberg is in it and he's bad. Granted, he's not, exactly, uh Robert DeNiro in the best of films but...he can be entertaining. Not in "The Happening". In that one, he delivers speeches very earnestly, as if convincing himself that choosing to be in this movie was a good idea. The female lead, Zoey Deschanel who is usually quite decent is...awful. She has to constantly tell people she can't show emotion. It's probably not her fault but...well....she's bad. The movie is bad. It seems to be a way for Mr. Shyamalan to let out some steam; there are so many gratuitiously violent deaths that by the time the man lies down in front of his lawnmower, I was groaning. I am happy to spoil the movie for you. It's about trees. Trees that are angry because humans suck. So they start letting out a toxin that causes people to kill themselves in lots of disgusting, violent ways. But in the end, the love of two people makes the trees calm down and stop killing people...at least that's what I think happened. Except then the trees start killing people in Paris. Which I thought was called "The City of Love". Which means that maybe the trees are fed up with people being in love by that point.

Just take my word for it; it was a horrible film. Yet it's also one of those that I think is going to become a cult classic because it seems almost deliberately awful. Unfortunately, I don't think Mr. Shyamalan made it to be that way. He's slowly been increasing in awfulness since...well...."The Sixth Sense". He seems to have lost himself in his own brilliance which, by now, sadly seems to be a fluke. Ever since the aliens were destroyed by a glass of water in "Signs", I've seen his movies merely because I knew they were going to be bad. Sometimes, it's just good to have guilty pleasures.

So, maybe I will rent scary movies tonight in honour of it being Halloween. I think I'll be avoiding the M. Night Shyamalan ones though. Maybe I'll rent "Poltergeist". That has a killer tree in it. Now that tree was scary. I used to have one outside my bedroom window when I was a kid and after I saw "Poltergeist", I was terrified of it. I kept expecting it to reach through my window and grab me, suck me in and eat me alive. I think I prefer that method to "The Happening"'s though. At least that tree was pro-active...it did the killing; it didn't just make people kill themselves. M. Night Shyamalan made trees seem lazy.

Anyway, obviously, I didn't know what to blog about when I sat down. It apparently is a blog about trees. The pretty ones that are outside the window and the Killer Trees that Hate Us. I prefer my trees to be like the one outside my window, gently giving in to the change of the seasons and letting me appreciate it's beauty. I'd hate to think that tree is secretly plotting ways to kill me....it seems so...calm.

Ok, on that note, I could digress and talk about other trees like the ones in Lord of the Rings that could talk and move and stuff but then that would make me seem like a giant nerd and we can't have that. So, I shall bid you adieu for the week and hope you have a more exciting Halloween than mine is likely to be. Just watch out for the trees....

Happy Halloween.